Mayme Tyner, 3/15/1906 - 11/05/ 2002

Mayme Tyner was one of four children born to Mack and Effie Campbell Tyner, Laurel Hill, Florida. She was a life long resident of Okaloosa County. She lived on the land of her forefather, Daniel Campbell. She began teaching school at age 14 after she passed the Florida Education written exam. Later she returned to school herself, finishing high school and college at FSU (then Florida State College for Women) finally receiving a Master’s degree in education.

Recalling her early childhood she talked about attending the annual 4-month school which usually began the first Monday following the 4^th of July. Prior to 1900 the school in the Laurel Hill area was a two-room shack with an enrollment of 70 students, two teachers. The teacher usually lived with local families who had a spare room.

Mayme and her sister Pearl attended Florida State College for Women on scholarship. And she supported herself by working at various jobs. She taught at Laurel Hill and Niceville before getting a permanent job at Laurel Hill where she taught until 1957.

Mayme became interested in politics and served 12 years (1956 – 1968) as Secretary of the Rebublican State Executive Committee for Florida.

Of her years teaching in the Okaloosa County school system she said, “It has been the rewarding experience of my life to attend the class reunions of my former students and to have them tell me of the effect I have had on their lives.” She added that all she ever wanted to do was to help build a better community. Mayme also a rancher and was a registered real estate broker for some twenty years.

She and her sister, Pearl Tyner, established an Eminent Scholars Chair in Nutrition at Florida State University, naming it for their parents Mack and Effie Campbell Tyner. Later on another scholarship was started. It was called the Mayme Tyner Endowed Scholarship which is awarded to students who graduate from high schools in the Panhandle area of Florida. In 2005 there were six recipients.

The epitaph on her grave stone reads as follows: “I wait for green mornings to come again, my heart warm with friends I have made, students I have taught, and a daughter I have loved.”